The so - called leadership is not about who manages whom, but about who helps whom.

When AI civil servants start approving documents and humanoid robots participate in team collaboration, the challenges faced by leaders have long exceeded the scope of "managing people."

Amid the wave of digital and intelligent transformation, the definition of "leadership" is being rewritten—should it be "leading humans" or "steering the human - machine hybrid?"

Professor Lü Feng points out that the real crisis is not technological disruption, but leaders' misjudgment of "Volatility": the environment is no longer just uncertain; even the rules of change themselves are accelerating the iteration.

In this article today, let's focus on effective leadership and discuss the path to building leadership in the digital and intelligent era.

In 2025, with the rapid development of DeepSeek, it has a huge impact on the entire system.

For example, questions such as whether people need to learn and where the knowledge for learning comes from need to be considered at the fundamental level. This poses a huge challenge to effective leadership.

I. Reconstructing the Essence of Leadership: From Managing Rules to Embracing Exceptions

1. Leaders vs. Managers: Two Sides of a Coin

We often confuse the concepts of leaders and managers. So, I use the concept of "operators" because "operators" can more comprehensively describe a person's state in an organization.

This operator probably has two meanings: one is to play a management role, and the other is to carry out management.

So, what does management do? Management is to execute rules.

There are always some rules to follow. For example, you have to register to enter Chengzeyuan of Peking University. There are rules, and you can't get in without following them.

In contrast, in many enterprises, management is very inadequate. The key lies in whether rules are established and operations are carried out according to the rules.

Of course, an operator is like two sides of a coin. One side is to act according to the rules, and the other side is to deal with changes. This is the leader.

Therefore, the combination of principle and flexibility makes an operator. Principle corresponds to the manager, and flexibility corresponds to the leader.

So, each of us has a management side, that is, to act according to the rules, but at the same time, we also have a leadership side, that is, to respond flexibly.

Since there are rules, there will be exceptions. What should we do when facing exceptions? We should embrace these exceptions.

2. The Fatal Trap in the VUCA Era: Volatility > Uncertainty

As shown above, these two pictures are often used in my MBA classes. From the pictures, it can be clearly seen that since entering the steam engine era, especially after 1775, and then to the birth of the World Wide Web, the speed of development and change has been extremely rapid.

Everyone also knows the meaning of the letter combination VUCA. Uncertainty describes the uncertainty of the environment.

But I want to remind you that uncertainty is not new; it is originally a characteristic of the environment.

Just like many entrepreneurs, they actually like uncertainty. The more uncertain it is, the more they can show their entrepreneurial qualities.

However, the biggest problem in the current environment is not uncertainty, but Volatility, represented by the first letter. Volatility is what scares entrepreneurs the most.

So, we are in an environment full of uncertainty. In traditional Chinese culture, there is a book called I Ching that talks about change. It mainly focuses on the rules of change.

But if King Wen of Zhou were brought to the present era, he would find that even the rules of change are changing. This makes the situation even more complex and difficult, as if entering a state of impermanence.

In this changing situation, since the rules are like this, then dealing with change becomes even more important.

Therefore, I believe that effective leadership is the foundation for an organization to move towards the future.

For operators, there must be established rules now. Just like the lyrics of a song go, "Dare to ask where the road is? The road is under your feet." Keep going, and the path you create will be your own.

II. Building a Leadership System: From Clear Definition to Thinking Model

1. The Definition of Leadership

It's actually not easy to figure out the matter of leadership.

Sometimes people also say that leadership is an art, like how a leader should lead and guide. But if you want to figure this out, you have to go back to the original meaning of leadership.

So, what is leadership? Leadership is the mutual influence between leaders and followers in a specific environment to achieve goals.

This definition mainly contains four elements:

First, there must be leaders and followers;

Second, there must be mutual influence between the two in an environment;

Finally, to achieve the goals.

In fact, there are three things for leaders:

First, the responsibilities of leaders, that is, what leaders should do.

Second, the competencies of leaders, that is, what qualities leaders should possess.

Third, leadership development.

Actually, for any organization, these are the most crucial issues. However, in reality, many people ignore them.

2. The Four - Dimensional Model of the Leadership System

i. Establishing a Direction: Goals Unite People

Leadership's most important task is to establish a direction, that is, to set goals. No matter what, when leading people forward, a direction must be proposed. A leader is someone who dares to point out the direction.

In fact, this is a huge challenge. Especially in today's era, as we all know, it is a great change unseen in a century, and the reform has entered the deep - water zone. Many people are confused and don't know where to go.

At this time, someone has to dare to ask, "Where is the road?" Because there are no ready - made rules to follow, you have to bravely point out a direction.

Let's take the example of Liu Bang:

Liu Bang led a group of people to do corvée labor to build Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, but they were delayed on the way.

On a rainy night, Liu Bang said, "Let's disperse. We'll die if we go. It's better to flee for our lives." After dispersing, everyone was in a dilemma and said, "Where should we go?"

Just imagine, on that dark night, after everyone dispersed and there was no restraint, they didn't know where to go.

At this time, someone asked Liu Bang, "Where are you going?" Liu Bang said, "I have nowhere to go. I'll also die if I go back. I'm going to Mangdang Mountain to become an outlaw." Someone said, "If you're going to be an outlaw, then we'll go with you."

Look, just like that, a leader was born.

Liu Bang didn't ask everyone to follow him; he just stated his destination, but everyone was willing to follow him. That's how followers are generated.

You have to dare to point out the direction. At that time, none of the others dared to point out the direction like Liu Bang did. This is not an easy thing.

For a leader, the significance of pointing out the direction is to transform a mob into a cohesive team through a clear goal.

We often say that the difference between a team and a gang lies in having a commonly recognized direction. So, this is a process. First, a direction must be pointed out, and cohesion is generated through this goal.

Some time ago, Harvard Business Review interviewed Henry Mintzberg. Mintzberg proposed a concept a long time ago, "Emerge the Strategy," which means that we first set a direction.

This direction may not be completely correct, but it doesn't matter. Just have a strategy first. During the implementation process, many new situations will emerge. Incorporating these new situations will turn it into a real strategy.

Confucius said, "There is nothing that must be done or not done." It means there is no fixed way; as long as you can achieve your goal, it's okay. This is the meaning of the emerging strategy.

In today's era, as a leader, when setting goals, you need to adapt to this dynamic state.

ii. Building Followership: The Psychological Contract from "Subordinates" to "Die - hards"

After talking about leaders, let's talk about followers. In many books about leadership that I've read, the role of followers is often overlooked.

When it comes to leadership improvement, the focus is always on leaders. But sometimes you'll find that even though the leader is excellent, the followers can't respond well, and the leadership effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

There is a Chinese saying that I think is very appropriate to describe this situation, "A good drum doesn't need a heavy hammer." If the drum is good, it will sound loud with a light tap; if it's a broken drum, no matter how hard you hit it, it won't sound.

So, as a leader, if you want to improve leadership effectiveness, when you've done a good job in leadership, from the perspective of systematic improvement, you might as well focus on the followers. If you understand the followers well, you'll find that the leadership effectiveness will be greatly improved.

First, Followers

Regarding followers, we'll focus on them. In current academic research, there is a consensus that where there is leadership, there is corresponding followership.

What is followership? This is not something scholars imagined out of thin air in their rooms. It is indeed a state that exists in real life.

Let me ask you a question: Are your subordinates necessarily your followers? In fact, subordinates and followers are not the same thing.

What are subordinates? Subordinates are people who get paid. They must get paid on time. If you don't pay them, they will definitely be unhappy.

What are followers? Followers don't mind not getting paid on time. They might even invest in you.

These are two different things.

Second, the Harvard Kellerman Model

Professor Kellerman from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government explored followership. He used the Involvement model, that is, the state of subordinates' participation in leadership affairs.

Professor Kellerman divided subordinates into five states according to the level of involvement:

Isolators, who don't care about the leader's affairs at all;

Passive bystanders, who don't think about the things assigned by the leader;

General participants;

Activists;

Finally, die - hards, who will follow the leader whether they are right or wrong. These are the so - called followers.

We can also see that it takes a systematic and continuous psychological construction process for a paid subordinate to transform into a follower.

This is not just determined by a labor contract. It also requires a psychological contract because only when a person has a strong sense of psychological participation in the leader will they become a follower.

So, after understanding the concept of followers, we can understand why Huawei advocates putting the strugglers first. The so - called strugglers are actually followers.

iii. Power Game: What to Do When Post - 00s Employees Don't Buy into "Positional Authority?"

The third element is power influence. There is a relationship of power influence between leaders and followers.

Actually, power is a kind of influence. Leadership is the power of a leader, that is, the leader's influence. Here, I want to talk to you about where power comes from.

Don't underestimate this picture. It is a classic model in organizational behavior.

According to the theory of organizational behavior, a leader's power can be decomposed into five sub - powers: legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power, and referent power.

The first three powers belong to the hard power granted by the organization. With the corresponding position, one has legitimate power and can carry out rewards and punishments.

The latter two powers are personal powers. Through one's professional skills and personal charm, one can generate attraction.

This model can well explain many phenomena related to leaders. We will find that sometimes a leader is ineffective because they adopt the wrong leadership style.

For example, if you are an outsider who moves from one unit to another. You were the marketing director in a certain unit before and now serve as the vice - president of marketing in the new unit. After taking up the new position, when facing new subordinates, what kind of power should you use?

Many outsiders can